City council will not hold a plebiscite or resident-led petition for a referendum on the joint-use school’s proposed Westheath location, despite Jan Radwanski’s best efforts to convince members to do so.
The city cannot pursue Radwanski’s suggestions mainly because municipalities can only hold plebiscites or referendums on matters within their jurisdiction, according to The Cities Act, city administration said during the Feb. 27 regular council meeting.
Furthermore, Prairie South and Holy Trinity Catholic school divisions and the Ministry of Education chose the location, a power that The Education Act grants them. That Act also prevents municipalities from affecting location choices since it’s outside their authority.
City administration added that a plebiscite would be pointless since its outcome would be non-binding and contrary to the legislation.
Coun. Heather Eby said she wanted a new school soon, especially since it’s been nine years since Holy Trinity began planning for a new Sacred Heart.
“I’m not willing to have the South Hill children that I love continue going to schools that have bats and mice and (are) unacceptable places for them to go to school every day,” she added. “… we don’t have one-room schoolhouses on every corner anymore … or in every neighbourhood. We will have one school on South Hill and that is not our decision … .”
Presentation
The city needs to hold a plebiscite or referendum because this situation involves the rezoning of city property for a large project, Radwanski said. It’s also important to have more public consultations.
The former Prairie South trustee summarized how the joint-use school arose, explaining that Holy Trinity wanted a new Sacred Heart building in 2014, Prairie South wanted a new school at Westmount in 2015, and the province said in 2017 the divisions could build a joint-use school on either site.
In 2018, the Prairie South board expelled Radwanski from his duties and committees because he wrote a letter to the Empire School Community Council explaining how a joint-use school would “eradicate” traditional kindergarten to Grade 8 education on South Hill.
“People asked me, what did you do as a trustee to get dialogue going? So, you can see what happened to me,” he said.
Radwanski reiterated his belief that the proposed site contradicted the Official Community Plan (OCP), particularly section 7.2.
That section says, “Institutional uses that serve the needs of more than a neighbourhood population or are of a size and scale that is not compatible with a residential environment shall be encouraged to locate in or near the downtown or other areas with adequate access to roadways and public transit, and where there is no significant negative impact on surrounding land uses.”
“So, I’ve seen no evidence of that encouragement by city hall or any councillors with the provincial government to be in a centrally located site,” said Radwanski.
A plebiscite or referendum is needed because of “the fiasco” that occurred during the Feb. 13 meeting when council voted on school-related bylaws, he continued. He pointed out that, under The Cities Act, abstentions — which the mayor appeared to do 16 out of 18 votes — are considered negative votes.
Radwanski added that the precedent council was setting could “spell doom” for the north-end schools since something similar could happen there.
Mayor’s response
In response, Mayor Clive Tolley said he voted in favour on Feb. 13, even though he may not have “overtly raised (his) hand” but did say “carried” because the bylaws passed 4-2.
He added that he apologized at the start of the Feb. 27 meeting for how he conducted that vote and the concerns raised with the results’ accuracy. Therefore, he thought this issue was closed.
“It’s legislation. It’s legislation,” Radwanski shouted from the gallery, which prompted a rebuke from the meeting chair.
Council then voted unanimously to receive and file the report and presentation.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, March 13.
